Auction clearance rates down across Canberra

Canberra’s auction market slowed last month, with Domain data showing clearance rates have dropped year-on-year in most regions.

The overall clearance rate in Canberra for April 2018 was down 6.8 per cent to 60 per cent, with all bar two regions experiencing a decline.

Gungahlin’s clearance rate was the lowest at 41 per cent. This is the second consecutive month the north side region recorded a clearance rate below 50 per cent.

The clearance rate in Woden was the second lowest at 54 per cent.

While Belconnen experienced a drop of 6 per cent in April, both year-on-year and from March 2018, the region had the highest clearance rate at 72 per cent.

Belconnen is consistently one of the highest performers in the auction market, and Ray White Canberra agent Peter Walker attributed its performance to the fact it’s an established region.

“People put more merit in returning to older, more established suburbs,” he said.

“I always speak to the buyers after I have sold at auction and the majority of the results have been a consequence of the large blocks in Belconnen.

“I think people are looking at the big picture and the fact we spend more time at home than we did previously so there’s value in having big blocks.”

Auction attendance numbers in Belconnen can be considerably high. Last month a Florey auction registered nine bidders and in March an auction in Kaleen had 14 registered bidders.

• Related: Belconnen district leads Canberra’s auction market with high clearance rates
• Related: ‘Lower end of the market’: Home snapped up at auction for $457,000
• Related: How has the auction market performed in 2018?

Tuggeranong and Weston Creek were the only two regions to experience a year-on-year increase in clearance rates. Tuggeranong’s clearance rate has jumped by 11 per cent to 67 per cent, and Weston Creek’s clearance rate has increased by 3 per cent to 62 per cent.

The total supply of houses on the market in April was 1232. For units it was 1243.

The number of new supply of houses and units on the market remained steady over April in most regions, with Gungahlin’s new supply the highest at 95. However, new supply of houses in Woden has dropped 42.6 per cent to 33.

Cream Residential agent Chris Wilson said that total supply is low in Woden.

“There is certainly a lot of demand in Woden but there’s not a huge amount of stock,” he said.

“We’ve been lucky that we have had a lot of stock and we’re seeing prices well above owners’ expectations.”

However, the new supply of units in Woden is up by 74.4 per cent.

The rental market continued to remain tight over April with the total supply of houses in the ACT down 12.4 per cent year-on-year and units down 15.9 per cent.